The outward trappings of Nicholis's system were
Anabaptist. His followers were said to assert that all things were ruled by nature and not directly by
God, deny the
Christian doctrine of the
Trinity, and repudiate
infant baptism. They held that no person should be put to death for their opinions, and, like the later
Quakers, they objected to carrying arms and anything like an oath. They were quite impartial in their repudiation of all other churches and sects, including
Brownists and
Barrowists. Nicholis's message is said to have appealed to the well-educated and creative elite, artists, musicians, and scholars. They felt no need to spread the message and risk prosecution for
heresy. Members were usually a part of an otherwise-established church, quietly remained in the background, and were confident in their elite status as part of the
Godhead. The
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition states: Members of the Familists included the cartographer
Abraham Ortelius and the publisher
Christopher Plantin. Plantin worked during the day as
Philip II of Spain's printer of
Catholic documents for the
Counter-Reformation and otherwise surreptitiously printed Familist literature. Nicholis's chief apostle in England was
Christopher Vitell, who led the largest group of Familists in
Balsham,
Cambridgeshire. In October 1580
Roger Goad, Bridgewater, and
William Fulke engaged in the examination of John Bourne, a glover, and some others of the Family of Love who were confined in
Wisbech Castle, on the
Isle of Ely. In the 1580s, it was discovered that some of the
Yeomen of the Guard for
Elizabeth I were Familists. The Queen did nothing about it, raising questions about her beliefs. The keeper of the lions in the
Tower of London for
James VI and I was also a Familist. The society lingered into the early years of the eighteenth century. The leading idea of its service of love was relying on sympathy and tenderness for its members' moral and spiritual edification. Thus, in an age of strife and polemics, it seemed to afford a refuge for quiet, gentle spirits and meditative temperaments. The Quakers,
Baptists and
Unitarians may have derived some of their ideas from the "Family". ==References==